Quote:
Originally Posted by oregon woodsmoke
If there are no smaller pots inside and there is no drainage, those plants haven't been in there for long.
Myself, I would enjoy the arrangement for a week or so and then rip it apart and re-pot each plant. It's important to me to save my plants, more so than to save the flowers.
I'm very new to orchids and I've only re-potted one plant in bloom and it seems to be happy enough and still retains all the flowers. Handle the orchids gently and it might be possible to re-pot without losing the blooms. If you do lose the flowers, you have the happy plant to bloom again later.
That's exactly what I'm doing! I have a spritzer bottle and spray a fine mist on the plant many times a day. I'm also anticipating having to break it down into 4 plants (well, five if you include the extra decorative plant) but I doubt I'll do it in a week, unless the blooms start falling. I'm so curious as to what's under the decorative moss on top! I have dug down under it and there's a very firm root system (so firm that I first thought it was a pot.) The leaves look very healthy and the buds (41 in all, NOT including the open blooms, of which there are 20) look healthy.
How I want to pull the whole damn thing out of the bowl in one mass, just to examine it! But I will restrain myself and try to enjoy the flowers. If and when they begin to shrivel and fall precipitously, you can bet that I will be asking for more guidance.
I will explain my previous experience with a gifted orchid in another thread.
---------- Post added at 08:43 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:39 AM ----------
My only other suggestion: when I am starting seeds, when the pot is still wet but the surface is getting dry, I spritz the surface with a spray bottle. That wets the surface without adding more water to the medium.
It would take a lot of care to spray the surface of the potting mix without getting water on the orchid leafs, but if you want to keep the arrangement, that might work.
I would guess that a mossy sort of potting soil in a ceramic bowl with no drainage is going to stay wet for a very long time.
|
I have been doing exactly what you have suggested:
Misting it many times a day to boost the humidity. The moss is still damp, so I haven't watered it. Watering will also involve penetrating the layer of DECORATIVE moss atop of the predominantly moss medium it's in.
I doubt that I will break it apart within a week as the root system is VERY firm, there are a total of 41 buds, and 20 open blooms. My impulse is to yank the whole damn thing out of the pot to examine the root system, but I think that would be counter-productive. I'm trying to enjoy the blooms right now (after all, it IS a birthday gift) but I think I'm too impatient and curious. I may just call the florist to try to get more information.
I've had previous experience with a gifted orchid which I will discuss in another thread because it's an interesting experiment-in-progress. (These are my first experiences with orchids and I love both the plants and the challenge they present me.)
|
|
|
|
Mistking
|
Looking for a misting system? Look no further. Automated misting systems from MistKing are used by multitude of plant enthusiasts and are perfect for Orchids. Systems feature run dry pumps, ZipDrip valve, adjustable black nozzles, per second control! Automatically mist one growing shelf or a greenhouse full of Orchids. See MistKing testimonials |
|
|
|
|
|